Tag Archives: Espinosa

January 25, 2026 · 2:54 pm

Another Knuckle Sandwich, La Aroma de Cuba and Diesel Cigars

It’s snowing here, I think I’ll be doing some shovelling later, followed by cigars on the porch. I’m pretty sure I have enough propane to keep my heather going for a few days! It would have been smart to get a back up tank filled yesterday. I think we’ve had more snow this winter than in the past 4 winters combined. Like I always say, I need to get the driveway cleared so the ambulance can get in to get me when I hurt myself shovelling. Enough of my snow whining, on to some cigars. In one recent visit to a local shop, I picked up a Knuckle Sandwich Puro Nicaragua Toro. This is made by Espinosa at the San Lotano factory, with a Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. It’s a nice box press and a pretty good looking cigar. This example had a loose draw, which I had to manage carefully. It has a lot of sharp pepper, and I know it’s going to go bad really fast if I over do it. I think it’s a strong cigar, not as strong as last week’s TAA cigar, but still formidable. I think I like the plain old Knuckle Sandwich Maduro best out of the line, but I’ll certainly try any Knuckle Sandwich (or Espinosa for that matter) that comes along.

In another local shop I grabbed a La Aroma de Cuba El Jefe in the 7″ x 58 vitola. I don’t see this on the La Aroma de Cuba website. This is a “value” priced cigar, it was under $10, and it’s made at the My Father factory. It seems like this is the only vitola this comes in. It has a rather ugly Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I bought two of these, from different retailers because the first one that I bought didn’t work right. Let me tell you, when you have a 7″ cigar that isn’t producing smoke, even though the draw seems open, it’s frustrating. I spent an hour and a half waiting for something to happen. That prompted me to stop at a completely different shop and get another one, which smoked perfectly. OK, there was a little burn meandering, but it was within tolerance. It was an OK cigar, some dry cocoa, but hardly worth giving it a second chance. If a cigar doesn’t work right, but I feel like it should taste good, I like to give second chances.

Last night I smoked a Diesel Worthy Fool that I had picked up earlier in the day. This is one I hadn’t seen before. This is the third in the Fools Errand line, it’s a limited edition. It’s a neat little perfecto. It has an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper and Nicaraguan habano tobaccos for both the binder and filler. It’s made by Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A. I got a late start, and while 5″ x 58 isn’t really a small cigar, it worked for the time I had. It was spicy, no surprise there, and it had a nice meatiness. Like most Diesel cigars, I liked this one. I think this has been around for a year and a half or so, not sure why I missed it.

Stay safe if you are having bad weather this week. I know this was a major storm. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Review

Tagged as diesel, El Jefe, Espinosa, Fool's Errand, Guy Fieri, Knuckle Sandwich, La Aroma de Cuba, Worthy Fool

January 18, 2026 · 9:59 am

Romeo y Julieta, Knuckle Sandwich and The Lost Angel Cigars

I see myself diving into some, perhaps, older cigars that I haven’t posted on here over the coming weeks. It’s a slow time of the year, so I’m picking up stuff I’ve overlooked in the past here and there. I’ve also found myself smoking a lot of the Bariay 1492 Red and Black recently, which has moved other stuff to the back of the queue. I may just smoke cigars that are called Red and Black this week, that leaves me with a few options. Anyway, I’ve had this Romeo y Julieta 1875 Connecticut Nicaragua Toro in the humidor for a long time and I realized I hadn’t had one yet. This cigar is made in Nicaragua, with a Nicaraguan shade grown Connecticut wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers. The tobaccos are grown by the Plasencias, one would assume it’s rolled in their factory also. This wasn’t a mild shade cigar. It started with an odd combination of cream and spice, which eventually turned into a bright citrus. I regret passing this over for who knows how long it was in the humidor. It came out in 2018. It was a good smoke, I enjoyed it.

I stopped in one of the local CigarCigars shops on the way home one day and picked up a few of the TAA releases that I hadn’t seen there before. Since the ownership of the chain changed last year, I’m not sure how the TA membership works, so I’m just going to keep picking them up there when I see them. I know some people who write about cigars ignore the TAA releases, but I do what I do, it’s new to me I’m going to write about it! as the kids said 20 years ago, whatev. One of the ones I grabbed was the Knuckle Sandwich Off Menu, the 2025 offering. This is made by Espinosa in AJ Fernandez’ San Lotano factory, part of Guy Fieri’s Knuckle Sandwich cigar line. It’s a butt kicker. It has a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, with Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and is a 6″ x 54 toro. $16 is at the high end of my range, but it looked good and I wanted to smoke it. This has a spicy, dark coffee and cocoa flavor profile, and it was powerful. It was exhausting to smoke, but quite satisfying! Definitely have a meal before smoking this one. Recommended.

Another TAA cigar I grabbed was the 2023 from The Crowned Heads. Obviously I have overlooked this cigar since it came out in 2023, but there are a lot of Crowned Heads cigars I’ve overlooked so that’s not really unusual I guess. This cigar is made by Ernesto Carrillo in the DR. It has a Ecuador Sumatra hybrid wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and fillers from the DR, Mexico and Nicaragua. It’s 6″ x 54, which seems to be the size I smoked most often, doesn’t it? I wish there were more Churchills out there. Anyway, this is a dark, oily wrapper, which started with some bitter cocoa and sourness, which wasn’t off putting and smoothed out over time. There are probably other Crowned Heads Cigars I like better, and there are probably other TAA cigars I like better, but this was was an interesting cigar. If you like them and can’t find them, I know a place.

That’s all for today. It’s snowing here, so I’ll probably shovel some, and have a cigar with a movie this afternoon. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

Comments Off on Romeo y Julieta, Knuckle Sandwich and The Lost Angel Cigars

Filed under Review

Tagged as aj fernandez, cigar, cigars, Crowned Heads, Espinosa, Guy Fieri, Knuckle Sandwich, Off Menu, romeo y julieta, Romeo y Julieta 1875 Nicaragua Connecticut, san lotano, TAA, The Crowned Heads, The Lost Angel, Tobacconists Association of America

December 21, 2025 · 9:43 am

Tatuaje, Knuckle Sandwich and a Don Emmanuel Cigar

Happy Winter Solstice! While I generally don’t like that today is the shortest day of the year, it gives me hope that for the foreseeable future the days will be getting longer! I prefer sunlight to darkness. Anyway, its uphill from here! Perhaps I have seasonal defective disorder or something. Anyway, I still smoke cigars, thank goodness for electricity! This week some of my “new to me” cigars aren’t really new, but this time of year one can’t be picky. I’ll start with the Tatuaje Avion 12, the smallest size in the Avion line, 5 5/8″ x 52, a cute little perfecto by today’s standards! I know I’ve smoked the Avion 13, which has a broadleaf wrapper instead of the Ecuador Habano that this and it’s larger sibling, the 11 has. The Habano surrounds Nicaraguan binder and filler. Something makes me think the Avion is an offshoot of the Fausto line, but in perfecto shapes. I like the shape, and I believe these are reasonably priced. That this cigar has been on the market for 13 years and this is my first go around with it is a failing on my part. There’s a sweet, dark fruit flavor I get, and it’s a fairly loose draw so I take care not to oversmoke it. I think it’s a really good $9 cigar.

Another cigar I smoked this week is a Knuckle Sandwich Maduro Robusto. This is a cigar that Espinosa Cigars makes for Guy Fieri, the TV cook dude. This is the most successful celebrity cigar todate, with Guy actually doing events to support it. This guy (can you call guys named Guy guy?), is a super busy guy, who recently injured himself requiring surgery, and still makes it to events. It’s good for cigars to have a celebrity, who nearly everyone with a TV knows, show cigars in a positive light. OK, the core line Knuckle Sandwich Maduro uses a Sumatra wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. While it’s different from the Red Meat Lovers cigars, it’s definitely in the top two of culinary themed cigars. There’s rich cocoa and nutty flavors and I like it a lot. I can’t remember where I got this, it might have been in one of those Smoke Inn samplers I keep buying for n0 apparent reason. I really like these Knuckle Sandwich cigars, there’s a whole bunch of Limited Edition cigars in this line I haven’t tried, and probably won’t. I’m sure they are good, I just never seem to see them.

Gabe Piñeres, PR guy to the stars, send me a flight of the Don Emmanuel cigars, Toro, Robusto and petite corona to sample. These cigars are blended by Eladio Diaz, who was the blender for Davidoff for many years. The “about” page on the website says that Don Emmanuel is a cigar sommelier, apparently world renowned, who I haven’t heard of. Eladio Diaz I’ve heard of. I could do some digging if I wanted to. They debuted at this year’s PCA show, and have one line so far, the Don Emmanuel Annunaki, a name which appeals to my affinity for the Ancient Aliens show. If there’s a TV celebrity more well known that Guy Fieri, it has to be Giorgio Tsoukalos, right? OK, he’s a nut who’s made a name for himself, I get it, I should be so lucky. The Anu (which I believe is some sort of fertility god in the Sumerian lore) is the toro, which I smoked. The wrapper is Dominican with a Mexican binder and Dominican fillers.It’s a interesting flavor profile. I want to say cedary, with some bitter flavors. Maybe there’s something mushroomy in there, but that could be a preconceived notion. These are flavors that don’t line up with my preferences, but they do for others. No complaints on the construction, it was well behaved. It’s a $16 cigar, not terribly by today’s standard, and it worth a try if you like cigars that I don’t! Not saying it’s a bad cigar, just not one for me (it happens! ask Lee Marsh of Stolen Throne). Maybe I’ll like the robusto and petite better.

The next few weeks have Christmas and New Years falling in them, so please temper your expectations for the next few Sunday posts. Not that any of them are spectacular, but maybe the next few will be shorter, ’tis the season. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Saturnalia, etc, to those who celebrate. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Review

Tagged as Anu, Anunnaki, Avion, Avion 12, cigar, cigars, Don Emmanuel, Espinosa, Guy Fieri, Knuckle Sandwich, tatuaje

February 9, 2025 · 10:08 am

Flor de las Antillas, Espinosa, and a Couple Platinum Nova Cigars

A few weeks ago I picked up a Flor de las Antillas Maduro toro at Cigar Mojo since I didn’t think I had smoked that cigar before. I know this isn’t a new cigar, it came out in 2016 and was based on an Anniversary cigar for Federal Cigars in New Hampshire, I believe. Nobody ever said I had to write about new cigars, they are new to me. I’m basically making a searchable database here that I can use to find out when I smoked a cigar and what I thought of it. You’d be surprised at how many times I use the search on my own site! Anyway, I knew I hadn’t tried this cigar, and it looked really good. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and is a 6″ x 52 Box Pressed Toro. It’s made at the My Father factory in Esteli. This started with a toasty flavor, with some spiced candy sort of flavors, I really enjoyed it. Mojo has a great selection of My Father cigars, I try to find something new to try when I stop in, and If I don’t see something, I grab a favorite. I’ll definitely grab this again.

I came home from the TPE show with a few new-to-me cigars last week, and one of them was the Espinosa Sumatra, again, in a toro size. There are only a few places around me that have Espinosa cigars, I know Wooden Indian has them, but I don’t get there as often as I’d like. My friend Richie at Espinosa gave me this when I stopped by the booth at the show. You probably don’t remember, but I met Richie back in 2019 when we were on the same episode of KMA talk radio. He was with PDR Cigars at the time. I was excited to smoke this cigar. It’s a 6″ x 54 with a Sumatra wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. This has some of the sweetness I associate with a Sumatra wrapper, and some nuttiness and earthiness. I enjoyed it, although I think I’ll stick with the Laranja Azulejo as my favorite in the line.

I always enjoy seeing Leo from Platinum Nova cigars at events and shows. I first met her at the 2020 TPE show, I remember Anne, formerly of Sutliffe, presently of City of Palms Distribution, introduced me to Leo and Ari. Platinum Nova cigars are made in the Dominican Republic and are very high quality in my experience. I remember seeing the Nova Champion Football Cigar in their display in 2020, and was lucky enough to get one from Leo last week. This is a football shaped perfecto, with a Habano 2002 wrapper, and Dominican binder and fillers. It, obviously, is stylized to look like a football. I hear that the Super Bowl is on tonight, so I figured I’d better smoke it before it was out of season. Wouldn’t make much sense smoking this on a warm summer day on the beach, would it? Of course, I was concerned that this 5″ x 70 perfecto wouldn’t burn right, or wouldn’t be that exciting, but I knew it had a good pedigree. It burned perfectly, and had a good draw right from first light. The flavor was sort of a leathery sweetness, lots of flavor, but medium strength. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was, and I enjoyed it while watching a movie on the porch. I’m kinda clad nobody makes a cigar shaped like a hockey puck!

Last night, while watching hockey, I smoked the Platinum Nova Platinum Batch Torpedo. This is a 6″ x 54 torpedo with a Habano 2000 wrapper and Dominican binder and fillers. It’s a really nice looking cigar. This is an $11 cigar that smokes like a much more expensive cigar. Burn and draw are perfect, it has bright tobacco flavors, is a little on the leathery side, but with some light floral notes. This is a sophisticated cigar that I would pick over a Davidoff or the like any day of the week, especially at that price. Nofa has some pricey cigars, but this one, on the low end (which 10 years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of calling an $11 cigar reasonably priced), is one of my favorite Nova cigars. It won’t knock you down, but it will give you a really pleasant flavor and smoking experience. I was delighted by it.

I’ve been using this lighter I got on Amazon for $24 and have been really happy with it. It’s a little big to carry around, but it’s nice for use at home. The V cutter does a nice job too. The link is an affiliate link. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

Comments Off on Flor de las Antillas, Espinosa, and a Couple Platinum Nova Cigars

Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Espinosa, Flor de Las Antillas, My Father, Nova Champion Football, Platinum Batch Torpedo, Platinum Nova, Sumatra

January 26, 2025 · 10:12 am

Some Viaje Cigars, an HVC and an Espinosa Rerun

I try to include new (to me, or actually new) cigars in my Sunday posts, if nothing else but to create a searchable database of sorts for myself. This is a blog, with is short for “Web Log”, and I write it for my own benefit and it’s a happy accident that other people choose to spend their time reading it. This is something for which I am grateful, by the way! Once in a while I smoke a cigar that I’ve written about in the past that I feel deserves mentioning again. In this case it was the Espinosa Laranja Azulejo. This week I smoked both the Robusto Extra (5½” x 52) and the Gordo (6″ x 60) and enjoyed them very much! This has a sungrown Sumatra wrapper, a Brazilian Arapiraca Binder and Nicaraguan fillers and is made at the San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua. I smoked this back in 2021, and loved it, a recent mention somewhere put it back on my radar, and I picked up a few when I visited a shop in the area that has some Espinosa cigars. Oddly, not a lot of my local shops have them for some reason. Anyway, I smoked the robusto in the shop on Monday evening, one of the friendliest visits I’ve had to that particular shop in quite some time, and it was an excellent smoke. I picked up the Gordo on the way out because I was so impressed. The gordo is box pressed, so it smoked more like a toro, both shapes have deep, rich espresso and spice flavors, all my favorite flavors. This is a supre good cigar, if you like the cigars I like, you’ll like this one.

On to the “new to me” cigars! On that same visit to a shop on Monday I picked up a Viaje Birthday Blend Collector’s Edition. This shop has a pretty “classic” selection, it was hard for me to find a cigar I hadn’t smoked before. By the way, Viaje’s website sucks, it’s just a landing page with rudimentary contact info. I got information from Cigara, which is owned by Scandinavian Tobacco. This is a 6¼” x 52 classic torpedo, which comes with a birthday wrapping paper sleeve. I admit that I don’t know what year this cigar is from, they seem to change every year, and I am not familiar enough with Viaje to know to look. I’m guessing it’s the latest, based on wrapper color and flavor alone, which is Criollo, not one of my favorite tobaccos. Anyway, I found this to be an interesting cigar, with some mild spice and a somewhat floral quality. It performed very well and while I wouldn’t seek this out again (unless I find myself in the same shop in the near future and can go look at the box!), but I wouldn’t pass one up if offered.

Smoking the Viaje prompted me to visit Cigar Mojo close to home here knowing that they had some Viaje cigars in stock. I selected a Satori Nirvana, which is the 6″ x 50 toro in the line. When I see “Satori” I’m reminded of a song off one of my favorite albums, King Crimson’s Beat from 1982, “Sartori in Tangier”. I know, Satori is different from SaNtori, but my mind goes there. This has a rather ugly, mottled wrapper, bu that usually means it’s going to taste great. It’s listed as San Andrés wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and filler, made at the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras. There were some earthy flavors and some chocolaty flavors, and I rather enjoyed the cigar. They had a couple other Viaje cigars at Mojo, but they were on the smaller side, maybe I’ll pick them up for the future.

Finally, I got around to picking up an HVC Hotcakes Golden Age in the Laguito No 5 vitola, 6″x 54. I probably have passed this by in the past because it’s Connecticut wrapped, but I think I’ve worked my way through the HVC line, and had to try this one. I’ve heard good things. This reportedly has some “Corojo 2006 Maduro” in the Nicaraguan filler blend. This cigar combines the bready, sweet grassy Connecticut Shade flavors with some gutsy sweetness from the fillers. I like this, and it was very nice smoking this on the porch watching a movie last night, amongst my favorite activities (or lack thereof).